Headache and neurorehabilitation

This center focuses on preclinical and clinical research in two main fields: 1) headache and neurological pain and 2) advanced neurological rehabilitation. 

Headache research has long been a pillar of the research activity conducted at the Mondino Foundation. Indeed, this activity dates back to 1970, when Prof. Nappi (now Emeritus Scientific Director) founded a small University of Pavia research center devoted to headache and brain circulation, basing it at the Mondino Foundation. Over the years that followed, thanks also to the efforts of Giorgio Sandrini (former Professor of Neurology, University of Pavia), headache research at the Mondino Foundation expanded progressively, becoming more differentiated and well established. All this led to the creation, in 2009, of the Headache Science Center, a joint interdepartmental research center of the University of Pavia and Mondino Foundation, which has since grown in strength and reputation, becoming a vital player in a research network of excellence with an international dimension.

The Headache section of the Headache and Neurorehabilitation Research Center conducts preclinical and clinical research activity relating to areas such as:

– animal and human models of migraine;

– comparative analysis of pathophysiological mechanisms;

– gender medicine applied to primary headache;

– innovative diagnostic and therapeutic processes;

– identification of biomarkers of disease/response to treatment;  

– identification of novel therapeutic targets for pain and primary headache;  

– mechanisms and mediators of medication overuse headache;

– pharmacogenetic aspects of migraine.

In addition to conducting original research, the Headache section runs a number of sponsored and researcher-initiated clinical trials of the most recent therapeutic options (drugs and devices) for migraine and cluster headache.

The research activity of the Neurorehabilitation section, on the other hand, concerns a range of diseases (Parkinson’s disease, stroke, multiple sclerosis, etc.) and is geared towards the creation and testing of innovative rehabilitation methods, such as virtual reality environments, neuromodulation and botulinum toxin. Designed to be applied alone or in combination (with each other or with classic rehabilitation approaches), these methods are used with the aim of stimulating and guiding post-injury recovery or preventing disease progression. Preclinical models of stroke are also used to obtain further insights into the pathophysiology of this condition and to intercept/modulate the functional and morphological processes that can stimulate and guide brain synaptic reorganization after stroke-induced neuronal loss.

Importantly, this center’s preclinical and clinical activities are closely intertwined, and this ensures prompt clinical transferability and rapid application, in daily clinical practice, of the discoveries made through the research projects.

Map of current collaborations